Delalande after an engraving by Charles Deblois ca

Michel Richard Delalande e Lalande'' (; 15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

who was in the service of

King Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

. He was one of the most important composers of

grands motets The grand motet (plural grands motets) was a genre of motet cultivated at the height of the French baroque, although the term dates from later French usage. At the time, due to the stylistic feature of employing two alternating choirs, the works wer ...

. He also wrote orchestral suites known as ''Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy'' and ballets.

Biography

Born in Paris, he was a contemporary of

Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas ...

and

François Couperin François Couperin (; 10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as ''Couperin le Grand'' ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented ...

. Delalande taught music to the daughters of

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

, and was director of the French chapel royal from 1714 until his death at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

in 1726. Delalande was arguably the greatest composer of French ''

'', a type of sacred work that was more pleasing to Louis XIV because of its pomp and grandeur, written for soloists, choir and comparatively large orchestra. According to tradition, Louis XIV organized a contest between composers, giving them the same sacred text and time to compose the musical setting. He alone was the judge. Delalande was one of four winners assigned to compose sacred music for each quarter of the year (the other composers being Coupillet, Collasse and Minoret). Delalande's was the most important quarter of the year because of the Christmas holiday. Later he had full responsibility for the church music for the complete year. At his death, since he left no mass of his own, the 1656 requiem of the Dukes of Lorraine by Charles d'Helfer was sung.

Works

Delalande left many versions of his works. His earlier versions show adherence to French Baroque style, but the later revisions incorporate more Italian

melisma Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is refer ...

tic lines and greater attention to

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tra ...

. Also, at least four collections of his works exist, each displaying different looks at composer's work as viewed by the people who assembled each collection. Scholarship of Delalande's work was for many years hindered because of inconsistencies in the spelling of his last name: de Lalande, Lalande, la Lande, de la Lande, and others. The family wrote the name as 'Delalande'. Finally, in 2006 the definitive "Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726)" by noted British musicologist Lionel Sawkins came out which runs to 752 pages containing over 3,000 music examples and details of performing requirements and of all source materials, as well as with comprehensive indexes and thematic locators. Vocal *

- Latin settings of psalms including Delalande's ''

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Ch ...

'' (1684). * petits motets - shorter Latin settings for a few vocal and instrumental soloists and continuo, including '' élévations'' on an eucharistic text sung at the elevation of the communion wafers. Instrumental Delalande was an expert organist and harpsichordist, and yet has left not a single note of keyboard music. * ritournelles - twelve substantial ritournelles for François Fossard and André Danican Philidor's book of ''Airs italiens'' (1695). For example, Delalande supplies a 31-bar-long ritournelle for two violins and continuo composed before ‘Giurai di non amar’ an aria from Domenico Freschi's ''Olimpia vendicata'' of 1681.Lionel Sawkin
Full Exotic nectar transformed: the grands motets of Delalande's maturity
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Selected recordings

* Symphonies pour les soupers du Roy. Hugo Reyne (HMA) 1990 * Les Folies de Cardenio.

Christophe Coin Christophe Coin (; born 26 January 1958) is a French cellist, viola da gamba player and conductor active in the field of historically informed performance. He is the cellist of the Quatuor Mosaïques and is the director of the Ensemble Baroque de ...

(Laborie) - court ballet, "The Insanities of Cardenio", after Cervantes. 2004 * Grands Motets : Te Deum, Confitebor, Super Flumina. Christie (HMA) 1991 * Grands Motets : De Profundis, Miserere, Confitebor tibi. Higginbottom (Erato) 1990 * Grands Motets : Dies Irae. Miserere. Herreweghe (HMC901352) 1991 * Grands Motets : Beati quorum. Quam dilecta. Audite caeli. Schneebeli (Virgin) 2002 * Grands Motets : Deus noster refugium Ps.46. Exaltabo te Domine. Le Parlement de Musique. Martin Gester (Opus 111) 2001 * Grands Motets : Regina coeli. De Profundis. Cantate Domino. Skidmore (ASV) 1995 * Petits motets: Miserere à voix seule. Vanum est vobis. Gens, Piau, Christie (HMT) 1992 * 3 Leçons de Ténèbres 1730. Desrochers (Astree) 1996

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Delalande, Michel Richard 1657 births 1726 deaths 18th-century classical composers 18th-century French composers 18th-century keyboardists 18th-century French male musicians French Baroque composers French male classical composers French composers of sacred music French classical organists French male organists Musicians from Paris 17th-century male musicians Male classical organists